Gian Paolo Di Santo

Practice Areas

Head of the IP and Life Sciences departments at the firm. Has been involved in some of the most important Italian IP cases of recent years and is recognised as one of the country’s most renowned IP experts – both by his peers and by leading Italian and international legal directories.

Key clients include leading players in the life sciences (Accord-Intas, DuPont, Ethypharm, Italian generic medicines association Egualia), fashion (Ralph Lauren), IT (Synchronoss, Micron) and manufacturing (Hormann, IKOI, Proras) sectors.

He has an exemplary track record representing art foundations and artists in copyright matters.

His expertise encompasses all areas of IP including patents, trademarks and other distinctive marks, supplementary protection certificates, copyright, design, software and geographical indications.

He is a leading expert in niche areas such as pharmaceutical market and data/market exclusivity, know-how and trade secrets, unfair competition, advertising and labelling, telecommunications, media and entertainment, IT, e-commerce, franchising and licensing contracts.

Skilled litigator with strong transaction-related IP expertise, he is specialized in the management of complex contentious cases (precautionary and on merits) which are often international in scope, working closely with foreign clients and professionals, coordinating defense strategies and actions over a number of jurisdictions and disciplines (civil, administrative, criminal and antitrust). He has advised on numerous “bet the company” and “landmark” cases in the pharmaceutical, IT, fashion and luxury goods industries, analysing the most topical and hotly debated issues of the moment in those sectors.

Recent years have seen marked development in the importance of non-contentious advisory work (e.g. relating to joint ventures, mergers and acquisitions, licensing contracts, transfer of technology, distribution and franchising) in sectors characterised by a high degree of technological innovation and those requiring strategic management and enforcement of complex portfolios of IP rights of groups operating in Italy and abroad.

Career

In-house counsel in Pirelli Group. Joined Pavia e Ansaldo in 1981. Partner since 1991. He is now Senior Partner of the firm

Professional Memberships

Member of the IP Committee of the American Chamber of Commerce in Italy

Italian representative on committees for the safeguarding of IP rights at international events (Première Vision, Paris)

Member of AIPPI (Association Internationale pour la Protection de la Propriété Intellectuelle)

Member of LES International.

He is also a member of the International Bar Association (IBA).

Personal

Bologna University (Law Degree cum laude), 1978

Admitted before Italian Supreme Court

Languages: Italian, English